Refugees living in camps in Port-au-Prince are being urged to leave
A tropical storm has regained hurricane strength as it powers towards Haiti, threatening earthquake survivors.
Hurricane Tomas is packing winds of 80mph (130 kph) and is expected to gain in strength as it moves north-east.
The US National Hurricane Centre says the centre of the hurricane will pass near western Haiti later on Friday.
The government has urged tens of thousands of people living in tented homes to find better shelter, but most say they have nowhere to go.
Forecasters are warning of the danger of flooding and mudslides. Health workers fear heavy rain will exacerbate Haiti’s cholera epidemic.
Aid agencies are rushing to get emergency shelters ready before Tomas, which has already killed 14 people in Saint Lucia, arrives.
According to the US National Hurricane Centre, Tomas should intensify over the next 24 hours and then lose strength by the end of the weekend.
“My sisters and brothers, leave the zones that are at risk, I beg of you”
Jean-Max Bellerive Haiti prime minister
“The most significant threat from this tropical cyclone should continue to be heavy rainfall which could produce flash flooding and life-threatening mudslides over portions of Haiti and the Dominican Republic during the next couple of days,” it said in a bulletin early on Friday.
It has been raining heavily in Haiti for hours, and forecasters warn Hurricane Tomas could destroy many of the makeshift tented homes where 1.3m people have been living since an earthquake in January.
Haiti’s leaders have been calling for mass evacuations from the tent cities.
“My sisters and brothers, leave the zones that are at risk, I beg of you,” Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive urged in a television address.
Those staying in the camps are making their shelters as strong as possible “There will be rain and wind throughout the country. Don’t be stubborn. Leave if you are in a fragile shelter.”
President Preval had earlier pleaded with people to “protect” their lives. But he acknowledged that the authorities did not “have enough places [on buses] to move everyone”.
The BBC’s Laura Trevelyan in the capital, Port-au-Prince, says few refugees have heeded the government warning, although mothers and babies have been evacuated from an exposed camp near the mountains.
“We haven’t taken precautions. We are in God’s hands,” one woman, Ave Lise Mesila, told Reuters news agency from her white tarpaulin tent.
Stefano Zannini, Medecins Sans Frontieres’ head of mission in Haiti, described the situation as “precarious”.
“It is the third big problem people here have had to deal with this year,” he told the BBC.
The NHC has warned of hurricane conditions – winds of 119km/h (74mph) or greater – for Haiti, the south-eastern Bahamas, the Caicos Islands and the Cuban province of Guantanamo.
It also issued a tropical storm warning for Jamaica and the Cuban provinces of Santiago de Cuba and Holguin.
Many earthquake survivors worried that the authorities were trying to permanently move them out.
“We are upset because they have not told us where we are going,” Domarcand Fenel, the head of a committee of camp residents, told Reuters. “People believe they want to expel us.”
Doctors have warned that torrential rain could flood sanitary installations and contaminate drinking water, worsening a cholera epidemic in the country.
On Wednesday health officials said there had been a 40% jump in the number of new cholera cases and the death toll was 442, with 105 more deaths since Saturday.
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